


Best Mates

by kommanderkenobi



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angry bois, Light Angst, Not that angry tho, cody trained the GAR to use stickers as currency, gambling but with stickers, just angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 20:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30010740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kommanderkenobi/pseuds/kommanderkenobi
Summary: Rex stopped showing up to sabacc nights, Fox figures out why.A little angst with a light side of brothers, and just a dash of murder solidarity.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe, Ahsoka stayed with the Jedi Order and Ponds is still here :). Beta-read by the lovely missinashkin on Tumblr!

Rex is avoiding him.

When all of Fox’s batchmates and closest brothers are on Coruscant, they make it mandatory to have too many drinks at 79’s. Since Fox almost never leaves Coruscant, it’s up to him to do most of the planning. He puts in requests for everyone’s leave, usually under the excuse of a commander briefing, and even steals parts of Wolffe’s armor so he’ll show up in some civvies. He makes sure Cody won’t be pestering his General about the medbay and that General Secura is too busy for Bly to spend every second with her. A lot goes into one night of sabacc with his brothers because every moment counts in times of war.

And recently, without fail, Rex has been finding ways to wiggle out of the night outs. The first time it was understandable; sometimes, certain plans take priority. The second time was a little more... questionable. How long does spot-checking your armor take? But tonight’s excuse was weighing on Fox’s mind. He was sitting at his desk when he got the message:

_ sexyrexy: hey, general skywalker wants to shave using his lightsaber tonight and i promised general kenobi that skywalker wouldn’t die before commander tano is a jedi :/ sorry vod maybe next time _

This is why Fox is losing tonight's game. And why he lost the game before that.

Oh, and perhaps the game before that one.

Fox is currently lost in thought, sipping on whatever Wolffe had placed in front of him. Logically he knows he should be drawing more cards; he stands at a 14 right now. However, drawing cards means taking his mind off the empty seat across from him. Fox wasn’t one to shove things off, whether it’s one of his troopers performing a little worse than usual or even the stack of paperwork from Palpatine. “Hey, _Fox’ika_ , your move.” Cody nudged his brother out of the trance, looking both amused and mildly concerned. It’s not often the Captain of the Guard gets distracted, even when he’s supposed to be relaxing.

“Yeah, sorry. Just thinkin’ about things. I’m standing.” He put his cards face down, knowing it will make his brothers squirm. As the others go around the table, he slouches back in his chair, bringing the alcohol down with him. Cody and Wolffe are glancing his way- Fox is surprised Wolffe can still see straight with the speed he’s been drinking at, but he shakes his head, a subtle move that tells them to stop worrying, mother hens that they are. 

Of course, it’s Bly who doesn’t get the memo.

“What’s got everyone’s favorite poster boy so glum?” Bly asks, throwing another page of stickers into the betting pool. It’s a running joke that Fox is the face of the clones on Coruscant, even if he tries to hide in his office when he’s not needed outside. Fox thinks for a moment, debating if he should voice his concerns. Taking a deep breath, he straightens in his chair, downs his alcohol in one swift motion, and throws the rest of his stickers into the pile.

“I’m all in, and I’ll tell you if someone else wins this game.” At that, his brothers move faster to finish the round. That was useful knowledge: in order to get a group of drunk commanders to cooperate, promise them gossip.

In the end, Cody wins. This is a victory for everyone; now, they won’t have to listen to Cody’s sulking about losing all his stickers. Wolffe got everyone another round, somehow without spilling a drop, while Ponds cleared up the table. Bly took his new drink with a noise of gratitude and leaned on the table, eyes glinting; the time had come. Fox sipped his drink and exhaled.

“It’s Rex,” Fox caves with a sigh.

“What about him?” Wolffe asked. “Last I checked, he was doing fine.” 

“It’s not him; it’s the fact that he’s been avoiding me every time he’s on the surface.” Fox shakes his head. No matter how drunk he gets, he always tries to cling to a little dignity. He wasn’t prepared to spill his heart tonight, but Fox couldn’t break a promise to his brothers.

“I don’t think he’s been avoiding you,” Cody said, rubbing the back of his neck, “He’s just been really busy lately. Have you  _ met  _ Skywalker and Tano? Sometimes I bet he just needs time to himself.” Cody seemed nervous, but his stoicism was still so present that Fox couldn’t decide if the nerves were real or alcohol-induced. 

“I asked if he wanted to go to the range and check out some new blasters they let my guards test run before shipping them out to the battalions. They’re supposedly even better than the old DC-17’s, but he claimed to have a briefing with Skywalker and Kenobi right when I wanted to go to the range. I thought it was nothing, but since I had already tried out the blasters, I didn’t need to go back to the range. I went into my office and found out that Skywalker had a meeting with Palpatine and Kenobi had a council meeting when we would have been in the range.” Fox explains, not missing the slightly guilty look on Cody’s face. Wolffe looks confused, Bly is sorry for asking, and Ponds just looks confused.

“Wait, wait, this was the last time all of us were on planet?” Ponds asked. 

“No, this was a few weeks ago, I think about a week after the last time we all were here,” Fox replied, checking his chrono quickly to make sure he isn’t staying out too late.

“That can’t be right, because that was when Rex and I spent a night lost in the lower levels. Tano had to come look for us, so did Thire, I think.” Ponds’ confused look was replaced with an oblivious one. Fox groaned and shoved his head into his hands, feeling a hand pat his shoulder, and another one began to rub circles into his back.

“Fox, don’t worry about it. I’m sure Rex is just dramatic, per usual. When you hang out around Skywalker and Tano, I hear questionable decisions bleed out onto you. Why do you think General Kenobi always has a migraine around them?”

“Don’t they say the same thing about Kenobi?” Wolffe smirked, stopping his pats on Fox’s shoulder. The former dodges a flick from the oldest brother.

“I don’t know what the heck you’re talking about. General Kenobi is very well respected. At least I don’t call my General dad!” Cody thinks he’s hit close to home, but Wolffe just laughs.

“Yeah, we all call him Dad; we even got him a mug. You may not call yours dad, but he probably calls you- _OOF_.” Fox was a hurdle underneath Cody tackling Wolffe, murder seeming like anything less than a capital offense at the moment. Fox laughs, resting his chin on his arms, finding relief in his two brothers about to be kicked out of the bar and the other two laughing their asses off. Eventually, he got up and pulled Cody off, but not before snapping some holos. It took a minute for both of them to calm down, and Fox wouldn’t let go of Cody until both men promised to not attack the other. Once their pinky promise, witnessed by Bly, was made, Cody went up to settle the tab while the others headed out. Fox stayed behind as Wolffe followed the younger two out, insisting that they needed “adult supervision.” Fox waited for Cody to pay, not wanting to leave him alone in the rowdy bar. They walked out of the bar together just in time to witness Ponds and Bly trying to throw pebbles at a security droid. Wolffe was on his comm, most likely hailing two cabs for the group. Ponds and Bly placed bets on who could hit the droid first without getting arrested as they waited.

This bet will most likely place them both in jail or severely injured by falling pebbles.

Before they got close to hitting it, both cabs pulled up. The brothers said their goodbyes and split up: Fox, Cody, and Bly in the first, and Wolffe and Ponds in the second. The ride is quiet, Fox taking to check his messages on his datapad while doubling as a pillow for Bly. The youngest has always been a lightweight, a fact everyone found funny since they all have the same DNA. After typing out a slightly passive-aggressive email, the cab slowed to a stop in front of the Jedi Temple, where two cloaked Jedi stood in conversation. 

The trio steps out of the cab, Fox having to nudge Bly awake from his nap. No words were needed as Fox passed Bly off to his General, the latter having to hold her Commander up so they could make it inside. Shortly after the pair had left (Bly was drunkenly complimenting Aayla, Fox had to fight back the urge to get another holovid of the night), General Kenobi took Cody’s arm around his shoulders. Fox nodded a greeting towards the Jedi, grateful that Kenobi was less formal with clones than other Generals.

“General Kenobi, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised to see you.” Fox relaxed, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Cody told me about your outing, but not too long ago, I was informed we would both be needed early in the morning. I am going to try and use the force to make sure Cody doesn’t embarrass me in front of Anakin by being severely hungover.” Kenobi jokes and Fox can't help but smirk at the small jibe. Cody mutters something along the lines of Anakin embarrassing himself on his own, but Fox just chuckles softly and crosses his arms. 

“You might want to check him for injuries. He and Wolffe tackled each other before we left.” Cody looked betrayed as Fox finished his statement. Kenobi immediately tried to look for injuries, but Cody’s reassurance somehow convinced him to let it be. They shared a look between each other, Cody nudging his head towards Fox before Kenobi walked back towards the temple, waiting for his Commander at the top of the stairs. “Cody, I’m tired, and I want to go home. And I’m pretty sure you’re still drunk.”

Cody waved him off, “I know, I know, but I want to tell you this before I forget.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, probably already feeling a headache. “You said you were worried about Rex. He likes to train with Tano and Jesse in the temple during the mornings. I think they have some kind of bet going on for who can lift the most, but that’s not important.” He leaned in closer, lowering his voice, “I know you have a problem sharing your emotions. You get so much crap from civilians that you’re used to it, so sometimes you don’t see issues like others do. If someone throws a brick at you, then you keep walking because you’ve been hit by bricks before.”

“That’s property damage, Cody. I’d arrest them.”

“Not my point. Since Rex is always on the frontlines, he processes things differently. You should talk to Rex and ask why he’s been avoiding you because I think that you know why; you just haven’t connected the dots. It’s not your fault, we’ve all had different experiences in this war, and some of us are better at forgiving than others.” Cody could be surprisingly spiritual when he was drunk.

“Forgiving? Why do I need Rex to forgive me?” Fox furrowed his brows, leaning on his back leg in defense.

“You know what,” Cody said, leaving his brother with a pat on the shoulder and slinging his arm over his Jedi’s shoulder as the two walked into the temple. Fox started his short walk to the Guard barracks, but Cody’s words rang fresh in his mind. Forgiving him for what? Fox can’t think of anything Cody would forgive him for that Rex would hold a grudge on him for. Maybe the time that he ate Rex’s rations out of spite? Maybe when he tried to get Skywalker arrested for public indecency. But all of those were minor. What major thing happened that left Rex barely able to look at hi-

Oh.

_ Oh. _

He needed to speak to Rex tomorrow morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slightly more angst, wish Fox some luck! ;)

Fox never thought much about that night. At least not while he was awake. In war, learning how to suppress your feelings and focus on what is in front of you is a valuable tool. Working among Coruscant people, he and his guard were subject to many rude words, gestures, and displays. Fox himself was almost sent to the medbay when he tried to stop a protest and the protesters disagreed with him. This treatment brings him and his guard to rarely talk about what’s bothering them, the motto among them being “If you can’t handle the fight, get out of the light.” A saying their brothers in SpecOps found hilarious.

But, this also brings some nasty habits, such as not realizing the intensity of some actions. A senator once sat with Fox and had to  _ explain _ why telling the clones to go find their mother was wrong. And while every clone has had to shoot for their Republic, it is rare for clones to be put against living beings. All of the Separatist forces fought have been droids. This being the case, most clones never thought much about taking a life until the Jedi came along. The Jedi added on to the Remembrances taught by Jango Fett, teaching the clones that all life is important. But clones who never served under Jedi, never developed a relationship with them, they never got that lesson. The Coruscant Guard has always felt separate from the other Clones, one reason being that they never left Coruscant, and another being that they didn’t share the same values of life that Jedi-led clones did. 

Fox did a lot of thinking on this before he left in the morning, trying to figure out how to bridge the gap between him and Rex. On the way to the Temple, he almost turned to head back home, but all that waited for him there was a cot that held his worst nightmares. He knows what he did that night was wrong, but he didn’t think much of it until his first nightmare. He couldn’t understand why it latched on to him so tightly. It was just another mission with an unfortunate casualty. A blaster had been pulled on Fox; what was he expected to do? He did what he had to, whether Rex liked it or not. Whether Fox liked it or not. Sometimes, you just need to toughen up and accept harsh realities. They were bred for war and trained to lay their life down for the Republic. No matter how high the price, the clones were expected to pay in the Republic’s name.

Right?

Somehow, through all this thought, he found himself climbing the stairs. There was no turning back when Jedi Master Mace Windu welcomed him inside the Temple.

Fox feels out of place walking in the Jedi Temple in his civvies, but it felt more appropriate than his armor. He gives a polite nod to a group of younglings walking past, a few stopping and gazing up at him in awe. Their Crèchemaster got them moving, but Fox was able to fist-bump one of them before they walked off. He continued his search for the training room, walking through the sunlit halls and wishing he wore his helmet to hide his nerves. Giving up after seeing the same plant over and over again, he asked a nearby Padawan, who led him to an open training area.

Through double doors laid a two-story training room with a force shield roof. At first, he thinks it’s an open area, but the glistening in the middle and darker seams where it met the wall said otherwise. He walks down the staircase, hearing some lighthearted shouting. Various padawans were sparring along the way, and even a few Jedi knights and masters helping or working out themselves. There were two bench presses set up in front of a mirror that was lined with dumbbells. Jedi don’t typically weight train as the clones do, so their training room was mostly training sabers, mats, with weight equipment here or there. But, after the war started, many clones took to assisting at the temple during leave. The Jedi decided to add to their training room to fit their men's needs, a fact which the clones were very grateful for. Laying on the first bench press was everyone's favorite bleach blonde, a fact the man would always deny, and the second held a bald clone with the Republic cog tattooed on his head. They both had large weights on the bar, with a young Togruta cheering on the blonde and a tattooed medic cheering on the other.

“Go, go go! Come on, Rex, beat his ass!” Ahsoka shouted while beads of sweat ran down Rex’s face. Rex and Jesse shouted various insults at the other while Kix pumped his fist in the air, joining Ahsoka in her excitement. 

“Come on, Jesse, you weren’t made an ARC for nothing!” Kix was now leaning down and shouting into his brother's ear. Fox hated to interrupt, so he smirked and kept his distance, deciding it was better to let them finish and talk afterward. Rex and Jesse let out some weird inhuman grunts, but eventually, Jesse’s arms were shaking enough where Kix took his position above him as a spotter.

“AGH! I yield! Get this bar off of me!” Jesse grunted out through clenched teeth. Kix took both hands and struggled a bit to lift it to the hooks, but they set it down with no problem with their combined strength. Rex shouted in victory as Ahsoka helped him set his down, then stood up, throwing both his fists into the air. Though, he immediately regretted it as he remembered how tired his arms were. Fox started to approach the group as Kix helped Jesse up, everyone passing Rex various forms of payment. He thinks he sees Ahsoka pass him actual credits while Kix gives him… a piece of paper with the medic’s face on it.  _ Must be some sort of coupon _ , Fox guesses. He stands to the side until Ahsoka turns, probably sensing him in the force. She has a worried expression on her face, but nudges Rex. The blonde is still smiling and laughing, but once he makes eye contact with Fox, he turns tense.

Jesse and Kix share a concerned glance but mutter something about going to make sure someone wasn’t setting the barracks on fire while they were gone. As they walk off, Ahsoka whispers something to Rex and goes to join the other two at his nod. Rex picked up a towel and started to wipe off his sweat, Fox moving a little closer, wanting to test the waters but not wanting to force Rex into talking.

“You need something, Fox?” Rex started to walk to where the storage shelves were, and Fox followed at a respectful distance.

“We missed you last night, Cody would have lost all his stickers if you played.” Rex chuckles, but there’s no substance to it. It’s obviously a courtesy laugh.

“If I won, Cody would never let me swear in front of him again. Can’t taint his shinies with my Mandalorian mouth.” Rex reaches his locker and picks up a bag, one embroidered with “501” and his iconic Jaig Eyes on each side of the numbers. He picks a shirt out from the bag, switching it with the shirt he’s currently wearing. “I need to finish my paperwork before Skywalker is called off world-.”

“General Skywalker is currently meeting with the Chancellor. I had to reschedule their meeting to today since last time he got called away.” Fox replies, leaning on the wall and picking absentmindedly at his cuticles, “Can we talk?”

Rex frowns at him, waving his hand for Fox to follow him. “Yeah, just let me hit the fresher. Give me an hour, then meet me in the barracks.” Fox is about to object, not wanting to talk about it in front of others, but Rex stops his thought process. “I have private quarters this time. Tano pulled some strings.” Fox nodded in response.

“I’ll see you then.” Fox watches Rex walk off, rubbing a spot on his temple as he thought how to approach the topic for later. He decides not to think about it too much, Rex may still blow him off. For as honorable as he is, Rex is also human, and avoiding emotions during war is better than breaking down in the middle of a battlefield, Fox knows. Once Rex is out of sight, he starts his own trip to his office, needing a distraction before he finally faces Rex. 

Fox saunters through the barracks the 501st are staying in. He waves to a few brothers he recognizes, but many of them he couldn’t identify. The thought almost made him slow down and ask their name, but the sight of brothers he  _ did  _ know kept him going. Jesse and Kix didn’t speak as he passed, their silence standing out over the various shiny greetings.

They must know why he’s here.

After walking past a few more doors, Fox finally comes to the room Rex had claimed. His hand hovered over the door, but something inside him wasn’t letting him knock. He’d never felt this tight in the chest before; maybe he should turn around and ask Kix what it was. Before he could finish his turn, the door behind him opened up. 

“Jesse let me know you were here.” Rex stepped back into the room, looking freshly showered and cozy, dressed in sweats and a tee. He leans on the small kitchenette counter as Fox closes the door, lingering for a moment before stepping around to face Rex. His younger brother now has a mug in hand, sipping on it as he leaned back against the counter. He gestured towards a chair next to Fox, “Take a seat.”

Rex was acting like he hadn’t completely ghosted his brother, but Fox can play that game too. He took his seat, trying to ignore the growing tension in the room, thick enough to stop a blaster bolt. Fox tried his best to match his brother's seemingly relaxed demeanor, but even Fox was finding it difficult to hide his emotions. Rex was obviously waiting for him to start, so Fox decided to just cut the tension with a theoretical lightsaber rather than stall any longer.

“You’ve been avoiding me.” This was the bacta patch that needed ripping off.

Rex raised an eyebrow, “This is  _ war, _ Fox. I’ve been busy.” Dank farrick, this was going to be difficult. Fox is sure Rex knows why he’s there, but forming the right words to start is proving difficult. ‘Hey, sorry for killing your best friend, drinks later?’ seemed too casual. And possibly insensitive. Rex seemed to have other ideas as he sat on his cot, now at eye level with Fox. “If this is about sabacc last night, you can ask Skywalker where I was-“

“It wasn’t- no. It’s not that you won’t come to sabacc, it’s that you won’t do anything involving me.” Fox feels like he sounds like a whiny shiny, but Rex used to be a close friend. Is it so wrong to want that back? Movie nights will never be the same without Rex correcting historical inconsistencies. Or drinking games where bets are placed on how many comm frequencies Rex can get; the highest is 8 within 4 hours.

“Fox… you know why I’ve been avoiding you.” Rex stood up, moving to the open window to lean on the ledge. “You’re not a  _ di’kut _ . You’re probably one of the smartest brothers we have.”

Fox stood up but didn’t move close to Rex, “I know what I did, but I don’t understand why you’re reacting this way. I completed my mission-.”

“Is that all this is to you?” Rex turned to face Fox, a spark of anger appearing in his eyes. As he spoke, the flame grew larger. “Is there some training that you and your Guard for that my entire Legion missed out on? Your blaster should have been set to stun, you  _ know  _ it should have-.”

“It wasn’t my blaster!” Fox almost had to scream to be heard over Rex’s increasing volume. The brothers shared a moment of silence, both gathering their thoughts before Rex finally spoke up.

“What?” 

“It was one of my men’s. They passed it to me before we stormed in because mine was jammed. My charges weren’t going in, and my spare was left back at our office.” Fox never talked about that night. Knowing what you’ve done and acknowledging it was two different things. Sure, he knows who held the blaster and who was written on the report, but accepting that he’s killed one of his brothers?  _ That _ is what gets shoved to the back of his mind.

That’s how the nightmares happened.

“I don’t understand.” Rex had a confused glint in his eyes, slowly replacing the anger that was there before. 

“His spare blaster didn’t have the stun charges inside, it had the blaster bolts. I didn’t check before I went in because I assumed that all the troops had replaced  _ all  _ their blaster charges with stun charges, not just the ones in their hands. It was my mistake, I know that.”

“If it was your mistake, then why don’t you see the problem? Fox, you killed my best mate. I can’t just walk it off like nothing. Especially knowing what happened.” Rex turned back to the window, looking out on brothers roughhousing in the courtyard. Fox joined him, hesitating at first, then looked down at the wrestling brothers. One had a holorecorder in his hand, shouting something at the two on the ground. It was rare to see these engineered beings messing around, simply for the sake of messing around. Fox has seen small moments like this in the mess, moments when Hound decides to steal Stone’s rations, leading to an intense chase through the mess. Seeing his brothers roughhouse is something that always brings a smile to his usually stoic face. Today was different; no smile found its way to him. 

Rex was semi-lost in thought, but Fox wasn’t shoved away when he took his spot at the window, so he would count this as a win. He took a shaky breath, catching his younger brother’s attention.

“I was told that I process death differently from others. The whole guard does, actually. We don’t see what you see in the frontlines. You guys rarely need to kill things that breathe, but one anti-war protest could result in three civilian casualties by our hand. Most clones that die get processed by us, whether there’s a body or not. We process them before they get shipped back to Kamino.”

“Fox, I know this, why does it matter?” Rex was getting irritated by his dragging.

“Seeing a dead being at my hands is different, I see it all the time. Even when it’s at my hands and it’s a rogue brother, I never really thought much of it. For some reason, it’s different with Fives. I never really knew most of the br- I feel wrong calling them brothers.” He leans on to the window sill, resting his head in his hands, “I never really knew most of the… clones I shot. Most of them were clones who ran away and were trying to desert. We’d chase them with the goal to arrest them until they either try and shoot us or physically attack us. But it was different with Fives, I remember when him and Echo came to our sabacc night once to celebrate becoming ARC’s. I never thought about it when I was awake, I was able to distract myself enough, but at night I felt like my subconscious was trying to punish me. The others wanted to leave the war behind, but Fives…”

“Fives just wanted answers. To help his Republic; he was good like that.” Rex smiled when he thought about Fives, even keeping a little of the smile as he looks to Fox. “I won’t say knowing you had nightmares over it helps my head, but it definitely changes my opinion. Death is an unfortunate downside to this war, but life is too short for us to hold grudges.”

“You sound like you already thought about this before I came in.”

“I took a long shower.” Fox nods, joining him at bringing their gazes to the wrestling brothers, who have been joined by two more regulation haircuts, also with holorecorders. One of Kix’s trainee medics was also seen on the sidelines, possibly in case someone was hurt, but more than likely there for his own enjoyment. 

Rex pointed to one who was only wearing armor below the waist. Kama is easily recognizable from any distance, and it sat on the clone's utility belt, “He shot Waxer.”

“What?” Fox exclaimed, immediately looking at Rex as if he’d just announced he hated meilooruns.

“On Umbara, Krell put our forces against each other, claiming that the Umbarans had stolen our armor and weapons. When I found the first dead clone wearing 212th armor, it was already too late. It was so dark, in the report it says Waxer was a casualty. Two nights later, I think it was around 0300, he came knocking on my door, looking as if someone had run over his loth cat. He was completely distressed, so I did what I could to calm him down. His name is Sketch, and he was a shiny back then. He was going on about how I should just have him decommissioned, and he was talking so fast that I could hardly get him to stop just so I could ask what he was talking about. He told me that he remembered seeing the little painted Twi’lek through his scope before pulling the trigger, how he had been the one to kill Waxer. Initially I was angry, but after seeing the toll it took on him- I just couldn’t let him go on like that.” 

The clone in question, Sketch, was now chasing his brother who held the holorecorder. Their laughs could be heard through the glass of the window, and it became even louder as Rex opened the window. The group heard the squeak as the window opened, heads snapping to see Rex and Fox looking out on them. Rather than snapping to attention like most shiny’s would, they just waved at their Captain and kept chasing. Rex gave them a lazy two-fingered salute, turning back to Fox.

“Three weeks ago, I signed the papers to promote him to an ARC.” His voice lowered since the window was now open, “He was just following orders, the one thing all  _ vode _ have in common. We all just want to serve the Republic whatever way we can. After I confided in General Kenobi, he helped Sketch see one of their mind healers, and he’s been thriving ever since.” 

Fox smirked a bit, “Why not General Skywalker?”

Rex rolled his eyes, “Fox, you work in the kriffing Senate Dome, you  _ know _ why I didn’t ask Skywalker.” Fox laughed, shaking his head as he recalls having to escort Skywalker out of the Dome. Rex pats him on the back, chuckling alongside him, “Next time we’re all here, I’ll tell Skywalker to have Tano help him shave. When he asks why, I won’t tell him where we play so we can have time without whining Generals.”

“Don’t let Wolffe hear that, he doesn’t like it when people insult his dad.” Rex laughed, a hearty laugh that could have brought tears to his eyes. Another thing the clones have in common is a mutual understanding of General Dad Koon. Thinking about the Kel Dor made him realize that the tension was gone. The thick tension  _ had _ been cut, leaving only the two brothers, watching chaos ensue as Kix finally joins the group on the ground. Fox thinks that Kix is saying something about responsibility and not getting kicked in the face, but he isn’t listening too hard.

“Rex, I know you saw them fighting and didn’t say anything!” 

Fox would take Rex’s silence over Kix anyday, so he thinks it’s time to leave his brother alone for now.

He needs to start planning their next game of sabacc, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I had fun writing it, and can’t wait to write some more :) for extra shenanigans follow my tumblr (kommanderkenobi)!


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